in washington today, after meeting with the president of somalia, secretary clinton said the u.s. is ready to help the french. >> we are supporting the french operation in mali with intelligence and airlift. we're working with a half a dozen african countries as we did with respect to somalia over so many years to help them be prepared to send in african troops. >> brown: clinton said u.s. trainers will arrive in the region by this weekend to work with those troops. in addition, the european union approved sending a military training mission to mali during an emergency meeting in brussels. in mali today, french forces encountered stiff resistance from islamic extremists controlling the northern part of the country. the town of banama, just 90 miles from mali's capital, was put on alert and a contingent of roughly one hundred malian soldiers sped there after reported sightings of jihadists in the area. meanwhile the first detachment of troops from a west african regional force arrived to reinforce french and malian troops. a short while ago i spoke with lindsey hilsum of "independe